Anyway, after all the discussion and vitriol, Van is now dead. Rest in Peace. I won't remember your life as you were wrong, but I remember your death.

Rest now Van.

I would like to think that your death was not in vaine.

But most of the dumb ****in rednecks on this site would think otherwise.

As I hope every would be drug trafficker does if they have the incliniation to do what he did.

I couldn't agree more.

Totally agree with you.....everybody knows the penalties so they must b of their ****in heads even to take the smallest amount into the country.

Bide by the rules of the country you r travelling to or..............................................DO NT BLOODY GO!!!!!

It hasnt been in vain.

His twin brother has said that this event has changed his own life, and one assumes he will no longer be involved in drug dealing himself. I assume that when he got his brother to do this run, he probably assumed that the maximum sentence, if he got caught, would only be about the same 9 months that he himself got.

However, he was caught in Australia, not Singapore like his brother.

Lets hope other Drug runners/dealers like those two, realise that it may not be worth it.

I wonder what the reaction would be if the Singaporeans carried out action against Qantus, the airline that was carrying the drug runner ? Should Qantus be banned from Singapore ?

For the unions to want to bring things like that into it is totally ridiculous.

It was the TGU (Transport Workers Union), and drug running is transport, so .... some people may see the connection.


The next thing we will see is the Asian countries demand that Australia changes its Laws, so that they are not so lenient !!

And what will we do ?
Accept that another country has a right to make us change our laws, or would we politely tell them that it is OUR country, and for us to choose our own way of dealing with criminal acts ?

.

If he did put his brother up to it I trust the Australian authorities will do the right thing and lay charges against him as an accessory to drug trafficking and if neccessary respond to any extradition request from Singapore. At the least they should question him on who they were going to sell the drugs to.

The ironic thing about this post is that if it wernt for the unions historical fight against injustice, the likes of you could be worked to death in a government sanctioned disregard for the value of human life.

Its no surprise that a union would support an anti-death sentence seeing as those who fought against Unions were those whose idea it was that they didnt give a damn if slaving a 10 yr child in a coal mine was in itself a death sentence.

This whole thing isn't about the drug smuggler or how he did the crime so should pay. I think it safe to say that everyone agrees that punishment is due however, executing this young man wont stop drugs or any other crime and just takes us back another step in evolving as peaceful human beings.
His crime is irrelevant which is something the death supporters fail to see

Sadly for the likes of you Ned, Australia has evolved past the death penalty and would never extradite anyone to some culture that murders offenders.

It was a guy called Tan who set it up.

The excerpt from the article mentioning his twin brothers original crime:
and

Oh please.... Im very thankful to the tolpuddle martyrs , but that was 200 yrs ago and times have moved on. You cannot relate in any sense the unions of today with the union movement then. Well.. you can if you shake hands in a funny way and wear your left sock at half mast and call everyone brother....

The link to the fact the guy 'travelled' and therefore used 'transport' to commit his crime is tenuous to say the least. These people have just shown themselves to be foolish - they obviously dont have enough real concerns to keep them busy.

Perhaps I am getting it wrong -the real issue was that so many of their membership are involved in or actively smuggling that it really is of concern to them as a union... thats probably right now I think about it. Good on them for looking after their own.

Yes indeed, times HAVE moved on, but not in places like singapore. Tunnel vision is your option, one you use quite well.

I have read most of this thread with great interest. (I'm a Brit in the USA - so really have no business on this board but....) This story has gripped me.

It is easy to get in to the death penalty debate right now, but the part that really got to me, was the method of execution.

Although I am 100% against the death penalty, when in a foreign country, (or your own for that matter) you must accept their rules. So my point here is no whether he should have been executed, but my particular horror at the hanging rather than lethal injection as is common here in the US.

That is what really bothered me. It just seems so very barbaric and something that should belong in the past. The mental torture leading up to it must have been horrific. That said would death by any method be any different?

The death penalty in general really seems to be making the news a lot at the moment, what with the 1000 execution coming up this week in the US.

In case anyones interested this case has not made any headlines here, but clearly has in Britain.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner just had their baby, so clearly that is far more important!!!!! ahhh... the wonderful US media!

Its of no use trying to stimulate debate on this forum, babaricy is rampant